It’s more than frustrating when you’re working on something on your Mac and the app freezes, but here’s how to fix the problem to return the order to chaos.
OS X Yosemite isn’t perfect, and it’s still a fairly new operating system. Most of the popular apps have been updated to support Apple’s latest version of OS X, but even then some apps don’t work well on Macs. Thus, some apps may freeze on you constantly. Most of the time, you’ve probably just waited and stared at the blank screen while your Mac resolved itself, but you can be proactive and take matters into your own hands.
When Mac apps freeze, there are a few things you can do to temporarily fix the problem, as well as steps you can take to prevent apps from constantly freezing because there’s nothing worse than working on a project or just browsing Reddit and the app. You are working, it suddenly freezes. This spinning beach ball is definitely a symbol of disappointment.
Without further ado, here’s how to fix a frozen Mac app and prevent it from happening in the future.
How to Fix Frozen Mac Apps
When an app freezes on your Mac, there are a few things you can do to fix the problem and it usually only takes a minute to fix it. However, if you’re working on a project like writing an essay or editing a video in iMovie, make sure you’re constantly saving your work. Some apps automatically save your progress, but if you’re working in Microsoft Word or any other app that doesn’t automatically save your progress, you often have to do this yourself.
Now, when an app freezes in your head, I recommend waiting a minute or two before trying to take matters into your own hands. Often times, when most Mac apps freeze, it doesn’t take that long. Your computer needs some time to catch up. However, even after a minute, the app is probably a bit frozen and will probably need some help.
At this point, you can right-click the application icon in the dock and select . This is essentially like pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del on a Windows computer, where it closes the application with no questions asked. You can also go up and click the Apple logo in the upper left corner and click the icon.
But even that may not work sometimes and you need to go a step further. Unfortunately, this step consists of actually shutting down and restarting your Mac. You can try restarting it by going to the Apple logo in the upper left corner and clicking Restart, but if you have a frozen Mac app, your computer won’t restart until that app responds.
This means you will have to force shut down your Mac by pressing and holding the power button on your Mac for a few seconds until the screen goes black and the entire computer shuts down. From there, wait a few seconds and then press the power button again to reboot. This will close all your windows, but on reboot OS X will ask if you want to restore any applications that were open before closing.
How to Avoid Frozen Mac Apps
Unfortunately, there isn’t really a solid way to prevent Mac apps from freezing. If an application is not well built to work with OS X, there is a chance that Apple will have some problems running in the operating system. Chrome is a big issue for me because it freezes and crashes pretty regularly.
To prevent Mac apps from freezing, try checking the app for updates. It is possible that it is outdated and the latest update has some fixes that prevent freezing. You can usually check for updates to a Mac app by going to the Mac App Store and clicking the tab. Otherwise, if the app has not been downloaded from the Mac App Store, you can go up in the toolbar and click the icon.
Really, all you can do at this point is try to find an alternative app that works and works fine on Mac. So if Chrome is giving you trouble, try Safari or Firefox. If Microsoft Word keeps freezing you, try some of the cloud-based options like Google Docs.
